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UNIVERSITY
OF FLORIDA
LIBRARIES

I —

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2011 with funding from

LYRASIS IVIembers and Sloan Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/apologyforprinteOOfran

Books won't stay banned. They won't
burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the
long run of history, the censor and the
inquisitor have always lost. The only
sure weapon against bad ideas is better
ideas. The source of better ideas is
wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is
a liberal education."^

*Alfred Whitney Griswold, Essays in Education, Yale
Universitv Press.

AN

APOLOGY FOR

PRINTERS

Benjamin franklin

Edited and with an introduction by
Randolph Goodman; a prefatory
note by Philip Wittenberg; and
wood engravings by John De Pol

BOOK CRAFTSMEN ASSOCIATES, INC.

NEW YORK

1955

COPY-RIGHT © BOOK CRAFTSMEN ASSOCIATES, INC., 1955

DESIGNED BY HAR\^Y SATENSTEIN

MANUFACTURED IN THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY

BOOK CR.\FTSMEN ASSOCIATES, INC., NEW YORK

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

It is a privilege to take a leaf
out of the notebooks of our Eighteenth
Century predecessors and act as both pub-
lisher and printer, republishing this Ameri-
can classic. This edition represents the
first separate publication of Benjamin
Franklin's Apology since 1731, two hundred
and twenty-five years ago. Franklin's elo-
quence about the value of a free press to
a free people is especially worth hearing
and heeding now.

This edition is published on the 250th
anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth
to reaffirm the principles for which he
stood as printer and democrat. The pub-
lisher would also like to take this occasion
to dedicate this book to printers who be-
lieve in the principles of The Apology —
and especially to my father, Jesse Saten-
stein, from whom I first heard these
principles expressed.

Harvty Satenstein
December, 1955

PREFACE

At the age of sixteen Benjamin
Franklin had already been seasoned as a
printer who had experienced criticism
and repression. His brother James had in
1720 or '21 begun to print a newspaper,
the ''New England Couranl'\ the fifth
that had appeared in America.

As Franklin writes in his Autobiography:
"One of the pieces in our newspaper
on some political point, which I have
now forgotten, gave offense to the As-
sembly. He was taken up, censur'd and
imprison'd for a month, by the
speaker's warrant, I suppose, because
he would not discover his author. I
too was taken up and examin'd before
the council; but, tho' I did not give
them anv satisfaction, thev content 'd

PREFACE

themselves with admonishing me, and
dismissed me, considering me, perhaps,
as an apprentice, who was bound to
keep his master's secrets.

During my brother's confinement,
which I resented a good deal, notwith-
standing our private differences, I had
the management of the paper; and I
made bold to give our rulers some
rubs in it, which my brother took very
kindly, while others began to consider
me in an unfavorable light, as a young
genius that had a turn for libelling
and satire. My brother's discharge was
accompany'd with an order of the
House (a very odd one), that 'James
Franklin should no longer print the
paper called the New England Cour-
ant.'"

His brother evaded the order by return-
ing to Benjamin his indenture of appren-
ticeship thus making it possible for the
paper to be printed under the name of
Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin's experience was not novel, for
up to that time the history of printing had
run parallel with a story of suppression.
Johann Gutenberg's invention of movable

PREFACE

type in 1440 was followed shortly by the
establishment in England of the first press
by William Caxton. He had learned the art
on the Continent and coming to West-
minster had set up a press at "The Red
Pail" in Almanary. A hundred years after
the invention of the movable type we have
the first repressive statute passed in 1553
under Henry VIH and by 1556 the Sta-
tioners Company was chartered by PhiHp
and Mary.

One of the obvious purposes of the
chartering of the Stationers Company was
to prevent the diff'usion of literature at-
tacking the Church and State, for the
Charter itself stated that seditious and
heretical books, both in rhymes and tracts,
"were daily printed, renewing and spread-
ing detestable heresies against the Catho-
lic doctrine of the Holy Mother Church."
The Charter provided for the suppression
of the evil by constituting some ninety-
seven persons as an incorporated society
of the art of stationer, and ordered that
no person not a member could practice the

IX

P R E F A C E

art of printing. Years later our Supreme
Court was to say of the Stationers Com-
pany "they were particularly ruthless and
exercised the power of search, confiscation
and imprisonment without interruption
from Parliament."

As usual, however, men of wit and learn-
ing found ways of circumventing statutes
and organizations designed to limit or
prohibit a free press. Secret presses sprang
up. In fact the Star Chamber Decree in
1637 refers to "a great part of the secret
printing in corners" and made provision
for all printing in corners without li-
cense. . . . Like all prohibitory laws evasion
brought about frequent reaffirmation. So
we find orders of the Star Chamber in
1556, 1585, 1623 and 1637.

On the 11th of July, 1637 the Star
Chamber issued its most famous decree.
It ordered:

"That no person or persons vvhat-
soeuer shall presume to print, or cause
to be printed, either in the parts beyond
the Seas, or in this Realme, or other
his Maiesties Dominions, any seditious.

PREFACE

scismaticall or offensive Bookes or
Pamphlets, to the scandall of ReU-
gion, or the Church, or the Govern-
ment, or GkDvernours of the Church
or State, or Commonweakh, or of any
Corporation, or particular person or
persons whatsoeuer."

Among its provisions was one that all
books were to have imprinted thereon the
name and address of the publisher and
of the author. The purpose was for identi-
fication for punishment.

When the Star Chamber was abolished
in 1640 by act of Parliament the House
of Commons set up a licensing scheme to
suppress the critical press, and in March
of 1642 they enacted a law providing for a
Committee for Examinations which had
power to search "for presses that are kept
and employed in the printing of scandalous
and lying pamphlets", and in June of 1643
Parliament issued its famous order on the
subject where again they confessed that
their previous orders had failed notwith-
standing the diligence of the Company
of Stationers. Its preamble provided:

PREFACE

"Whereas divers good Orders have
bin lately made by both Houses of
Parhament, for suppressing the great
late abuses and frequent disorders
in Printing many, false forged, scan-
dalous, seditious, libellous, and un-
licensed Papers, Pamphlets, and Books
to the great defamation of Religion
and government."

It was this Statute which indirectly was
responsible for the writing of the great
"Areopagitica", John Milton's tract on
unlicensed printing, which appeared on
November 24th, 1634, and which was pub-
lished unlicensed and unregistered.

After the restoration of the Stuarts came
the Act of King Charles II, which provide
in part:

"Whereas the well government and
regulating of printers and printing
presses is matter of public care and of
great concernment, especially consider-
ing, that, by the general licentiousness
of the late times, many evil-disposed
persons have been encouraged to print
and sell heretical, schismatical, blas-
phemous, seditious, and treasonable
books, pamphlets, and papers, and

Xll

PREFACE

Still do continue such their unlawful
and exorbitant practice, to the high
dishonor of Almighty God, the endan-
gering the peace of these kingdoms,
and raising a disaffection to his most
excellent Majesty and his government;

Throughout the existence of these laws
the system of licensing and of the im-
primatur was kept alive. The imprimatur
survived as did the decrees as late as 1719
in the province of Massachusetts Bay, and
was in effect during Franklin's early ap-
prenticeship to his brother.

The remembrance of events by the Colo-
nists led to the adoption in the Constitu-
tions of the several states of guarantees
of a free press. The First Amendment to
the Constitution of the United States pro-
vided; "Congress shall make no law * * *
abridging freedom of speech or of the
press". Many of the state Constitutions
gave added force to the lesson of history
by the use of the words "printing press"
instead of "press", for the printing press
itself had been deemed the enemy.

Xlll

PREFACE

The passage of such constitutional clauses
and of statutes to enforce and linait them
has not brought freedom to the printer.
Practically all of our states have laws
limiting the press under one guise or
another, whether such laws be aimed at
what is called obscenity, libel or otherwise.
In fact, although Massachusetts had passed
its Constitution in 1780 establishing a free
press, the record shows at least three con-
victions for libelous political attacks ob-
tained between 1799 and 1803. The Con-
stitution of Massachusetts, Declaration
of Rights, Article 17 provides:

"The liberty of the press is essential

to the security of freedom in a state;

it ought not, therefore, to be restrained

in this commonwealth."

Franklin and the other printers of the
colonies had not fought in vain. Every
prosecution of a printer brought forth
protest. The Constitutions of the several
states prove how effective that protest was.
From the invention of movable type till
today every age has had men like Franklin
who keep alive the consciences of men and

PREFACE

the right to the free diffusion of knowledge
and opinion.

Constitutional provisions are not enough. With-
out the eternal struggle for law the press will
be enchained. Today, like yesterday, law must
be jought for. The printer who would have the
courage to print what must be printed must be
prepared to meet and struggle with the forces
of suppression.

Philip Wittenberg

Lecturer in Law in
Columbia University

INTRODUCTION

B. Franklin, Printer are the
words engraved on the tombstone in the
little cemetery, adjoining Christ Church
in Philadelphia to mark the grave of a man
whose many-sided genius entitled him to
much finer-sounding and more important
epithets. But he composed this epitaph
himself, in a fit of strange humor, when he
went into business on his own in 1728, and
thought it only natural that he should be
remembered as a printer, since his devo-
tion to the trade had begun in early youth
and would persist undiminished to the end
of his life.

As a boy of twelve, Ben was apprenticed
to his brother, James, who was a master
printer, and went to work in the latter's

INTRODUCTION

shop in Boston. His diligence, ingenuity,
and skill soon enabled him to progress fast
enough to direct the affairs of the paper be-
fore his term of indenture had expired. But
constant quarrels with his brother caused
him to break his apprenticeship and run
away to New York. That city had no work
to offer the ambitious youth at the time, so
he continued on to Philadelphia, where he
found a job as a journeyman in the print-
ing shop of Samuel Keimer. He was then only
nineteen. About a year later, still restless and
adventurous, Franklin was on his way to
London. In the English capital he worked at
his trade in the printing establishments of
Palmer and Watts, two of the largest and
best equipped in the country, where he
learned the most advanced techniques then
in use. By the end of 1726 Franklin was back
in Philadelphia, again in the employ of
Keimer, but his mind was now occupied
with plans for starting his own business.
With the financial aid of a partner, Franklin
ordered a press and types from London, and
when the new equipment arrived early in
1728, he was ready to strike out on his own.

xviii

INTRODUCTION

From Keimer, his former boss, who was
now in financial difficulties, Franklin
bought a weekly newspaper that bore the
pretentious title of The Universal Instructor
in All Arts and Sciences and Pennsylvania
Gazette. The new owner refurbished the
paper, making it lively and topical, re-
christened it simply The Pennsylvania Gazette,
and brought out his first issue on October
2, 1729. The paper prospered and led to
further lucrative activities, such as the
yearly publication of the Poor Richard Al-
manac, to job and book printing, and to the
printing of public documents and paper
money for the various colonial govern-
ments. In 1748, after twenty years of labor
at his trade, Franklin virtually retired from
active business to devote himself to public
affairs and scientific experiments; but he
had established partnerships with at least
a dozen men, whom he had set up in the
trade in various parts of the country, sup-
plying them with capital and equipment,
in return for a share in their profits. These
partnerships, as Carl Van Doren points
out, were entered into "almost as much to

INTRODUCTION

encourage printing and printers as to bring
a return on his money."

The quahty of the printing FrankHn did
during the period when he was estabhshing
his reputation and founding his fortune was
remarkable for Httle more than its neatness
and readabihty; but in his later years in
England and France, he continued to run a
press and came more and more to be inter-
ested in printing as an art. At the age of 74,
he was operating his own private press in
France with the aid of a foreman and three
or four assistants. There he cast type in his
own foundry and composed and printed
off his essays with his own hands. We are
therefore not surprised at the order of the
opening words of his last will and testa-
ment: 'T, Benjamin Franklin, Printer, late
Minister Plenipotentiary from the United
States of America to the Court of France,
now President of Pennsylvania . . ." for
these words make it abundantly clear that
to this man his life-long trade was of
greater significance than the highest honors
that his nation and state could bestow
upon him.

XX

INTRODUCTION

Since printer's ink never ceased to flow
in Franldin's veins, is it any wonder that
from his pen should have come a most
cogent and definitive statement in defense
of freedom of the press? The feature article
in The Pennsylvania Gazette, for the week
June 3 to June 10, 1731, was entitled An
Apology for Printers. It was Franklin's reply
to certain members of the citizenry who
were outraged by a statement made in an
advertisement which issued from his press.
Franklin had printed a handbill from copy
submitted to him by the captain of a sailing
vessel who was seeking additional freight
and passengers; a line at the bottom of the
"ad" asked prospective applicants to Note
Well (N.B.— Nota Bene): "No Sea-hens
nor Black Gowns will be admitted on any
terms." People took offense at the words
"Sea-hens" and "Black Gowns".

In defending himself, Franklin stated
that he knew that the expression "Black
Gowns" referred to the clergy of the
Church of England, but did not think that
the members of the clergy, many of whom
were his personal friends, would be dis-

XXI

INTRODUCTION

turbed by its use; as for the expression
"Sea-hens," he claimed he had never heard
of it. Here, it appears, he was merely
being discreet, for it seems highly unlikely
that Franklin, who was a master of the
language, had no notion of the meaning
of the word "Sea-hen" since the diction-
aries of the period define "hen" as slang
for whore. Further doubt is thrown upon
his protestations of ignorance when we
examine one of the letters that he wrote,
under the pseudonym of Silence Dogood,
for his brother James' newspaper, The
New-England Courant. Ben was only sixteen
years old at the time, but he records his
observations of the behavior of some sailors
and their girls in highly sophisticated sea-
slang. He wrote: "In one of the late pleas-
ant moonlight evenings, I so far indulged
in myself the humor of the town in walk-
ing abroad as to continue from my lodg-
ings two or three hours later than usual. . . .
I met a crowd of Tarpaulins and their
doxies, linked to each other by the arms,
who ran (by their own account) after the
rate oi six knots an hour, and bent their course

INTRODUCTION

toward the Common. Their eager and
amorous emotions of body, occasioned by
taking their mistresses in tow, they called
wild steerage; and as a pair of them hap-
pened to trip and come to the ground, the
company were called upon to bring to, for
that Jack and Betty were foundered. But
this fleet were not less comical than a com-
pany of females I soon after came up with,
who, by throwing their heads to the right
and left at everyone who passed by them,
I concluded came out with no other design
than to revive the spirit of love in disap-
pointed bachelors, and expose themselves
to sale to the first bidder. . ."

Whether Franklin was actually inno-
cently unaware of the meaning of the words
he had printed in the advertisement, or
only pretended to be so, is, of course,
immaterial. Franklin's reaction to the at-
tack which followed was an exact parallel
to that of John Milton, who wrote a series
of anonymous pamphlets favoring divorce,
when his own marriage went sour, and
then while the authorities were out look-
ing for the culprit who had dared to pub-

INTRODUCTION

lish such sacrilegious material, composed in
self-defense his brilliant Areopagitica, the
most celebrated plea in English for freedom
of the press. So while speaking in his own
behalf, Franklin was serving as the mouth-
piece for the printing brotherhood of all
times.

In view of the fact that Benjamin Frank-
lin has always been known as "The Patron
Saint of Printers" and has been quoted
as such in season and out, it seems strange
that An Apology for Printers, his most out-
spoken statement in support of the mem-
bers of the trade, has never before been
separately printed. It is offered here for
the first time to commemorate the 225th
anniversary of its original appearance.
The spelling, capitalization, and punc-
tuation have been modernized in the pres-
ent text, since it is more important for
us to preserve the timeliness and clarity
of Franklin's ideas than his eighteenth-
century manuscript style. Thanks are due
to Mr. Archibald Hanna, Librarian in
charge of the Benjamin Franklin Collec-
tion, Yale University Library for supply-

xxiv

INTRODUCTION

ing me with a photostatic copy of the
original article.

This little keepsake is intended to show,
as if additional proof were needed, on the
eve of the 250th anniversary of his birth,
that to Benjamin Franklin the smell of
printer's ink was as frankincense and myrrh,
and that by his solemn devotion to the
printed word he was able to leave the
imprint of his unique mind and spirit
upon the world.

Randolph Goodman

Brooklyn College, 1956

XXV

An Apology for Printers

An Apology for Printers

B,

>EING FREQUENTLY CENSURED and con-
demned by different persons for printing
things which they say ought not to be
printed, I have sometimes thought it might
be necessary to make a standing apology
for myself, and publish it once a year, to
be read upon all occasions of that nature.
Much business has hitherto hindered the
execution of this design; but having very
lately given extraordinary offence by print-
ing an advertisement with a certain N.B.
at the end of it, I find an apology more
particularly requisite at this juncture,
though it happens when I have not yet
leisure to write such a thing in the proper

AN APOLOGY

form, and can only in a loose manner
throw those considerations together which
should have been the substance of it.

I request all who are angry with me on
the account of printing things they don't
like, calmly to consider these following
particulars:

1 . That the opinions of men are almost
as various as their faces; an observa-
tion general enough to become a
common proverb, So many men so
many minds;

2. That the business of printing has
chiefly to do with men's opinions;
most things that are printed tending
to promote some, or oppose others;

3. That hence arises the peculiar un-
happiness of that business, which
other callings are no way liable to;
they who follow printing being
scarce able to do anything in their
way of getting a living, which shall
not probably give offence to some,
and perhaps to many; whereas the
smith, the shoemaker, the carpen-
ter, or the man of any other trade.

FOR PRINTERS

may work indifferently for people
of all persuasions, without offend-
ing any of them; and the merchant
may buy and sell with Jews, Turks,
heretics and infidels of all sorts,
and get money by every one of
them, without giving offence to the
most orthodox, of any sort; or suf-
fering the least censure or ill-will
on the account from any man what-
ever;

4. That it is as unreasonable in any
one man or set of men to expect
to be pleased with everything that
is printed, as to think that nobody
ought to be pleased but themselves;

5. Printers are educated in the belief,
that when men differ in opinion,
both sides ought equally to have
the advantage of being heard by
the public; and that when truth
and error have fair play, the former
is always an overmatch for the
latter. Hence they cheerfully serve
all contending writers that pay
them well, without regarding on

5

AN APOLOGY

which side they are of the question
in dispute;

6. Being thus continually employed
in serving both parties, printers
naturally acquire a vast uncon-
cernedness as to the right or wrong
opinions contained in what they
print; regarding it only as the mat-
ter of their daily labor. They print
things full of spleen and animosity,
with the utmost calmness and in-
difference, and without the least
ill-will to the persons reflected on,
who nevertheless unjustly think
the printer as much their enemy
as the author, and join both to-
gether in their resentment;

7. That it is unreasonable to imagine
printers approve of everything
they print, and to censure them
on any particular thing accord-
ingly; since in the way of their busi-
ness they print such great variety
of things opposite and contradic-
tory. It is likewise as unreasonable
what some assert, "That printers

FOR PRINTERS

ought not to print anything but
what they approve;" since if all
of that business should make such
a resolution, and abide by it, an
end would thereby be put to free
writing, and the world would after-
wards have nothing to read but
what happened to be the opinions
of printers;

That if all printers were deter-
mined not to print anything till
they were sure it would offend no-
body, there would be very little
printed;

That if they sometimes print vicious
or silly things not worth reading,
it may not be because they approve
such things themselves, but because
the people are so viciously and cor-
ruptly educated that good things
are not encouraged. I have known
a very numerous impression of
Robin Hood's songs go off in this
province at 2 s. per book, in less
than a twelvemonth; when a small
quantity of David's Psalms (an

AN APOLOGY

excellent version) has lain upon
my hands above twice the time;
10. That notwithstanding what might
be urged in behalf of a man's
being allowed to do in the way
of his business whatever he is paid
for, yet printers do continually
discourage the printing of great
numbers of bad things, and stifle
them in the birth. I myself have
constantly refused to print any-
thing that might countenance vice,
or promote immorality; though
by complying in such cases with
the corrupt taste of the majority
I might have got much money.
I have also always refused to print
such things as might do real injury
to any person, how much soever I
have been solicited, and tempted
with offers of great pay; and how-
much soever I have by refusing
got the ill-will of those who would
have employed me. I have hitherto
fallen under the resentment of large
bodies of men, for refusing abso-

FOR PRINTERS

lutely to print any of their party
or personal reflections. In this man-
ner I have made myself many ene-
mies, and the constant fatigue of
denying is almost insupportable.
But the public being unacquainted
with all this, whenever the poor
printer happens either through
ignorance or much persuasion, to
do anything that is generally
thought worthy of blame, he meets
with no more friendship or favor
on the above account, than if there
were no merit in it at all. Thus,
as Waller says.

Poets lose half the praise they
would have got

Were it but known what they dis-
creetly blot;

yet are censured for every bad line
found in their works with the ut-
most severity.
I come now to the particular case of
the N. B. above-mentioned, about which
there has been more clamor against me,

AN APOLOGY

than ever before on any other account.
In the hurry of other business an adver-
tisement was brought to me to be printed.
It signified that such a ship lying at such
a wharf would sail for Barbados in such a
time, and that freighters and passengers
might agree with the captain at such a
place. So far is what's common; but at the
bottom this odd thing was added, "N. B.
No Sea-hens nor Black Gowns will be ad-
mitted on any terms." I printed it, and
received my money; and the advertisement
was stuck up round the town as usual. I
had not so much curiosity at that time as
to enquire the meaning of it, nor did I in
the least imagine it would give so much
offence. Several good men are very angry
with me on this occasion. They are pleased
to say I have too much sense to do such
things ignorantly, that if they were printers
they would not have done such a thing
on any consideration, that it could proceed
from nothing but my abundant malice
against religion and the clergy. They
therefore declare they will not take any
more of my papers, nor have any further

10

FOR PRINTERS

dealings with me, but will hinder me of all
the custom they can. All this is very hard!
I believe it had been better if I had
refused to print the said advertisement.
However, it's done, and cannot be revoked.
I have only the following few particulars
to offer, some of them in my behalf, by way
of mitigation, and some not much to the
purpose; but I desire none of them may be
read when the reader is not in a very good
humor :

1. That I really did it without the
least malice, and imagined the
N. B was placed there only to make
the advertisement stared at, and
more generally read;

2. That I never saw the word Sea-
hens before in my life; nor have
I yet asked the meaning of it. And
though I had certainly known that
Black Gowns in that place signi-
fied the clergy of the Church of
England, yet I have that confidence
in the generous good temper of such
of them as I know, as to be well
satisfied such a trifling mention

11

AN APOLOGY'

of their habit gives them no dis-
turbance;

3. That most of the clergy in this and
the neighboring provinces, are my
customers, and some of them my
very good friends; and I must be
very mahcious, indeed, or very
stupid, to print this thing for a small
profit, if I had thought it would
have given them just cause of of-
fence ;

4. That if I had much malice against
the clergy, and withal much sense,
it's strange I never write or talk
against the clergy myself. Some
have observed that it's a fruitful
topic, and the easiest to be witty
upon of all others; yet I appeal to
the public that I am never guilty
this way, and to all my acquaint-
ances as to my conversation;

5. That if a man of sense had malice
enough to desire to injure the
clergy, this is the most foolish thing
he could possibh' contrive for that
purpose;

12

FOR PRINTERS

6. That I got five shillings by it;

7. That none who are angry with me
would have given me so much to
let it alone;

8. That if all the people of different
opinions in this province would
engage to give me as much for not
printing things they don't like, as
I can get by printing them, I should
probably live a very easy life; and if
all printers were everywhere so
dealt by, there would be very little
printed;

9. That I am obliged to all who take
my paper, and am willing to think
they do it out of mere friendship.
I only desire they would think the
same when I deal with them. I
thank those who leave off, that they
have taken it so long. But I beg
they would not endeavor to dis-
suade others, for that will look like
malice;

10. That it's impossible any man should
know what he would do if he were
a printer;

13

AN APOLOGY

11. That notwithstanding the rashness
and inexperience of youth, which
is most Hkely to be prevailed upon
to do things that ought not to be
done, yet I have avoided printing
such things as usually give offence
either to church or state, more than
any printer that has followed the
business in this province before;

12. And lastly, that I have printed
above a thousand advertisements
which made not the least mention
of Sea-he?2s or Black Gowns; and
this being the first offence, I have
the more reason to expect forgive-
ness.

I take leave to conclude with an old fable,
which some of my readers have heard
before, and some have not:

"A certain well-meaning man
and his son were travelling towards
a market town with an ass which
they had to sell. The road was bad,
and the old man therefore rode,
but the son went afoot. The first
passerby they met asked the father

14

FOR PRINTERS

if he was not ashamed to ride by
himself, and suffer the poor lad to
wade along through the mire; this
induced him to take up his son
behind him. He had not travelled
far, when he met others, who said,
they are two unmerciful lubbers
to get both on the back of that
poor ass in such a deep road. Upon
this the old man got off, and let
his son ride alone. The next they
met called the lad a graceless,
rascally young jackanapes, to ride
in that manner through the dirt,
while his aged father trudged along
on foot; and they said the old man
was a fool for suffering it. He then
bid his son come down, and walk
with him, and they travelled on
leading the ass by the halter, till
they met another company, who
called them a couple of senseless
blockheads, for going both on foot
in such a dirty way, when they
had an empty ass with them, which
they might ride upon. The old man

15

AN APOLOGY

could bear it no longer. 'My son,'
said he, 'it grieves me much that
we cannot please all these people.
Let me throw the ass over the next
bridge, and be no further troubled
with him.'"
Had the old man been seen acting this
last resolution, he would probably have
been called a fool for troubling himself
about the different opinions of all that were
pleased to find fault with him. Therefore,
though I have a temper almost as comply-
ing as his, I intend not to imitate him in
this last particular. I consider the variety
of humors among men, and despair of
pleasing everybody; yet I shall not there-
fore leave off printing. I shall continue
my business. I shall not burn my press
and melt my letters.

16

This Book was composed photographically

on a Photon machine by
MACHINE COMPOSITION COMPANY
470 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts

This entire Book printed letterpress

using original wood cuts and original

magnesium plates made from Photon positives

"RITE-ETCH"

Magnesium originals made by

THE WRIGHT CO., INC.

Cambridge 42, Massachusetts

Date Due

Returned

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